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The Adamantine War
NWN2 SS 102709 003619.jpg|right]] The Adamantine War, also known as the Second Death King War, was the second scourge of the Death Kings in the Kareyn valley. It resulted in an almost complete victory for the undead lords, with every single territory of the valley falling under the might of their armies, the exception being Astrid Rock. Origins During the The Black Angel's War , Medorion raised eight of the Death Kings. By the end of the scourge, the Keeper, along with three of these Death Kings, were destroyed, while the other five retreated into various corners of the valley or the north, though the lack of information on any of them to begin with led many in the valley to become completely ignorant of their existence. This was used to their advantage, as each of the deathless lords began to rebuild their forces. Curiously, a schism had occurred within their ranks; the newly returned Death Queen of Astrid (who was felled and trapped in the Astrid Deeps Mythal capstone during the first war) , now merged with the drow Zres'syr, endeavored to bring back an old god, where as the rest of the Death Kings were not interested in being shackled by a higher power. As such, their new war was not simply to wipe out the living as it once was, but to destroy the threat of this old god before it could return. To this end, the Death Kings rallied more than just undead under their banner; the orcs of the north now formed a good majority of their armies, led by the name of Gothmakin. Before the founding of Beldin, Gothmakin was a mighty orc warlord who led the tribes against the humans and elves of the valley. During the previous war, Medorion raised Gothmakin as one of his Death Kings. Once returned, the former orc went about rallying the tribes that once followed him, promising them power, vengence and eternal life. The orcs- along with all the other monsters of the north, eagerly accepted the Death Kings as their lords, and in the years between the Black Angels war and the start of this second war, began using the adamantine of the mines to equip their armies, a fact from which the horde got its name; the Adamantine Legion. The War begins As their army prepared for war, the Death Kings set their newest weapons loose; the control bug and soul bug, golem devices that could either take control of a victims nervous system or lay dormant until the victim was killed, at which point the soul would be snatched and trapped in a distant nexus, preventing it from reaching the fugue and going to its rightful gods. Adventurers in the realm found several of these laboratories and destroyed them, but by then the experiments had already been concluded. Eventually, several reports of the masked Death Kings stalking the land had reached the king. Scouts in the north had also revealed the fact of the gathering orc and undead legion. In response to this, Aelfric ordered his army - along with the most capable adventurers- to venture to the north and halt their advance at Wycliff. They were supported by the Doom Guide Crusade, a call to arms by the temple of Kelemvore against the abominations that were the Death Kings. The Battle at Wycliff The battle was a disaster. The night before attack saw a small skirmish band of orcs raiding the camps. Little damage was done, though the defenders failed to catch sight of the control bugs that infiltrated the camp during the chaos. These mechanical horrors infected the wounded and resting soldiers. On the day of battle, just before the orcs charged, the control bugs took control of their victims, and before the enemy could even reach, fighting broke out from within the Valley defenders own ranks, leading to total chaos just seconds into the battle. Barely ten minutes had gone by before a full retreat was sounded. article is a stub. Help improve it by adding what you know of this incident War in the Woods, and the Battle of the Northern Crossroad For several weeks after the fall of Wycliff, the battle lines remained in Aelfwood. The orcs had taken firm control of most of the northern sections of the woods, where as the valley alliance dug in at the Aelfwood crossroad path and the Siluvan grounds. In the Rouscou, the orcs began tearing down the trees for wood to use in their war machines, an act that left scars difficult to heal for the druids circle. Although raids on this camp managed to slow down the orc war machine, it still managed to reach and attack the crossroad defence. Thanks to the efforts of Gerald Leonsmane, Keyna Fearthegn, Elizabeth Lestrad and Anezka, the line was held. However, when the party ventured towards Siluvan to aid in their defence, the orcs launched another , much larger and more fierce attack, eventually overwhelming the defenders and driving them south to Karnelynn. Siluvan would be their next target. The Battle for Siluvan Knowing that defeat was a distinct possibility, Aravilar had previously evacuated the civilians of Siluvan to near by Mesteranial and Beldin (some went to House Despana). He stayed behind to command the cities defence, but as with all the major battles before, the sheer numbers of orcs - and now undead that seemed to be bolstering their ranks- overwhelmed the defenders. The party of adventurers tried to scout for an escape route to take the elven king out of the city, but found a massive contingent of Ghost Blade warriors gathering in the Siluvan tombs, led by the Death King of Siluvan. The group hurried back up to warn Aravilar. Ptolomi appeared and held off the gathering host in the crypts to buy them time , and was slain by the Death King. The survivors of Siluvans defense found themselves surrounded and prepared for a last stand. Aravilar, meanwhile, began to cast a powerful spell that, at the last moment, teleported the survivors and himself to Karenlyn. The Fall of Beldin Even after the fall of Siluvan, the bulk of the fighting took place in the Aelfwoods, most of which was going badly for the valley's defenders. In desperation, the adventurers and knights turned to the aid of the mysterious Overseer, who claimed there was an army capable of turning the tide in the Astrid Deeps. A squad was assembled quickly, which proceeded to enter the Deeps via the swamp. Descending deeper and deeper into the catacombs, the party eventually came upon a cache of statues, depicting angelic warriors. They determained that each statue contained a strange aura, but before the party managed to unlock this power, they were ambushed by the undead. Lestrad managed to escape, but before she could harness the power of the statues or raise her comrades, the mythal capstone emitted an energy wave, which shattered the statues upon contact. From these stone shells emerged solar warriors, but their forms were twisting and darkening into dread shadow archons, which soon took flight and left the deeps. The army that they had hoped would help them turn the tide was instead taken by the enemy. Two days later, the Noble Lords from the south, along with King Aelfric, appeared in Karnelynn, with grave news; Beldin had fallen to the enemy. It was swarmed by the shadow archon army from the deeps, bolstered by a massive undead legion that came from the crypts. Undead also poured in from the northern caves in Wildwood. Thus far this army was thought to be contained in the crypts when the Karnelynn defense had sealed the doors on their side. They did not anticipate the horde making such speedy progress from the caverns, through Wildwood and finally to Beldin. Although many civilians had been evacuated onto ships days before the attack, the death toll was immense, and almost the entire adventures guild was wiped out. Beldin was now a necropolis. Withdrawal to Astrid Rock Karenlynn braced itself for a bloody battle. To buy more time, a party of knights and adventurers, lead by Captain Keyna Fearthegn, entered the deeps one more time and used powder keg explosives to cause the tunnels to cave in, so that the enemy would not have direct access between the Aelfwoods and swamps, and thus cold not attack Karnelynn from the north west. This also successfully trapped a sizable force of undead inside. The battle eventually came to the town none the less. Sir Leonsmane led the defense of the north gate, while King Aelfric himself led a force to keep the crypt gates sealed. Despite their preparations, however, neither group expected to be able to do more than buy the forces at Astrid time to finish fortifying, and after a grueling battle, were forced to pull back up the mountain.